


Why Won't He Date Me? 50 Things You Can Do to Maximise Your Sex Appeal

by liionne



Series: A thousand ways to meet [26]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-08 15:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim liked the library. Jim liked the library enough to want to spend his entire day in it, and then go home to his own personal library. As if it wasn't enough that he worked in a building lined where the walls were lined with books, but he liked to go home to one too.</p><p>He also liked the guy who sat in the big red chair by the window.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why Won't He Date Me? 50 Things You Can Do to Maximise Your Sex Appeal

**Author's Note:**

> I apologise for typos and whatnot- this was based on a prompt from auideas.tumblr.com, but i can't find the actual link

Jim liked the library. Jim liked the library enough to want to spend his entire day in it, and then go home to his own personal library. As if it wasn't enough that he worked in a building lined where the walls were lined with books, but he liked to go home to one too.

Jim liked the smell of them. He liked the smell of hundreds of books all in one place, and he liked knowing that he was surrounded by infinite knowledge, enough knowledge to take over the whole world if he wanted to.

He also liked the guy who sat in the big red chair by the window.

He had a different book every time he came in, and it was usually always a different genre. Jim would watch him as he browsed the shelves, moving from section to section until he found one that he liked. And then he would take up his position in his big red chair, and read.

Jim never knew if he read until he got bored, or if he read up until a certain chapter, but he knew it wasn't about time. It wasn't an allotted time- sometimes he'd stay for hours and sometimes he'd stay for a matter of minutes. Jim hated it when he had to go; he liked it when he stayed for a while. He found that there was nothing better than watching someone lose themselves in a book, and Dr. McCoy looked god damn fabulous when he did. He'd relax into the chair after a few pages, and then his head would tilt till it almost fell onto his shoulder. He had nice hands, large hands, hands that held on tightly to the book but looked so gentle as he turned to the page. Sometimes he'd chew his bottom lip, or bite at it, and then Jim would think about maybe going over and volunteering to do it for him.

He couldn't remember when he'd first done it, but at that moment, Jim looked down at the book at his hands and doubted himself. He'd been subtly dropping books onto the table by Leonard's chair for a while, and he'd never doubted himself before. They were always something silly: _101 Pick Up Lines, Confidence in Dating_ , and his favourite, _The Geek's Guide for Dating_ (although that one had been more for him than for Leonard). Pushing his glasses up his nose with his index finger, Jim took a deep breath.

"Just go," Carol hissed, earning a sideways glance from Spock, their manager. She nudged him with her elbow, and then tilted her head towards Leonard. "Or better yet, just _ask him out_."

Carol hadn't been working at the library as long as Jim had, but they'd grown close fairly quickly; she liked thriller novels, and the occasional romance, and she tended to take the purple chair by the door if she had a spare moment. Jim liked her; she was a good person, and she was smart, and she was funny. She was a good friend.

"I can't do that." Jim muttered. His glasses were slipping again- he pushed them further up his nose and frowned. "He'd have said something by now, if he liked me."

"Jim." Carol snapped, a little too loud. Her cheeks flushed, and she managed to earn herself a glance from the good doctor in the big red chair "Jim, I have known you for two whole years now, and you have never once thought twice about asking someone out."

And it was true. He never doubted himself when it came to dating and relationships, but this was different. Doctor McCoy was different. Jim sighed, tapping his fingertips against the back cover before nodding.

"I'm going out there." He said.

Carol grinned. "Go get 'em!"

Jim skirted around the desks, across the corridor to Leonard's seat. He didn't stop, but simply dropped the novel " _Why Won't He Date Me? 50 Things You Can Do to Maximise Your Sex Appeal_ " onto the table, and left.

He had to take a breather in the horror section. After a few deep breaths he pulled the hem of his shirt down, pushed his glasses up his nose, and returned to his desk.

"Has he looked at it?" Jim hissed, looking at Carol and worrying at his lower lip.

She nodded, smirking a little. "He looked at it, and he chuckled. I think you're in."

Jim paused, pressing his lips into a thin line. He hoped he was in, he really did. He wasn't about to ask Leonard out directly, and he just- well, he just wanted the other to notice him. He never looked up when Jim walked passed, he never so much as glanced twice at the books Jim set on his little table, and he never met Jim's gaze across the sometimes crowded library floor with a love-filled gaze (so that one was a bit of a push, but still, Jim could dream). Sure, he checked out with Jim every single time he was in there, but that was it. That was all the attention Jim was getting from Leonard McCoy.

"He's moving." Carol hissed. "Act natural."

Jim gave Leonard an easy smile as he approached the counter, setting the book down onto it. Jim noticed he'd left the book Jim had given him untouched, and he sighed softly.

Bright smile still in place, Jim asked, "That all?"

Leonard nodded, pushing the Stephen King novel towards him. "Mm hm."

"Did you like the Matt Haig novel you got? Which one was it?" Jim asked, scanning the book's bar code and stamping the log in the front. Conversation like this was easy with Leonard, so long as it was about books. Jim knew books. He was good at books.

"The Humans," Leonard answered. "It was good, but I didn't like the endin'. How'd she forgive him so easily? He was an alien, and he'd killed her husband, and pretended to be him for months. Seemed a little unrealistic."

Jim snorted. "The book was about aliens landing on earth to get rid of a complex math problem. Realistic flew out of the window with the first word."

Leonard chuckled, taking his book back with a nod. "True." He nodded. "Very true. See you later."

"See ya." Jim called after him. When he was gone, his tall, built-out figure disappearing out of the doorway, Jim slumped onto his desk.

"He's never going to ask me out!"

~*~

Leonard didn't return for a long time after that.

Normally it took him a week, nearly two to read a single book. Jim could get through a book a day if he was focused enough, and he tended to be _very_ focused, but he understood that Leonard was a doctor- and from what he had gathered, he was a busy a doctor. An attending physician at one of San Francisco's leading hospitals, up for the Chief of Surgery if he played his cards right. He probably didn't have time to read like Jim did.

But three weeks? Verging on four. Four weeks. Jim hadn't seen Leonard in four weeks. He could be dead for all he knew!

Okay, so he probably wasn't dead.

But Jim was allowed to worry.

He hated seeing people sit in Leonard's chair. It made him feel crawly, and they always looked so out of place. Leonard sort of filled the chair, broad shoulders spanning it's back and long legs still managing to reach the floor despite the size of the seat. Everyone else looked too small, too out of place, and it made Jim feel a little antsy.

He was about to go for his lunch when Carol grabbed his arm. She had long fingernails, always painted either black or red, and right now they were digging into Jim's flesh, leaving tiny half-moons indented in his skin.

"Ow!" He cried.

It echoed. A lot.

Spock cleared his throat.

"Ow!" Jim hissed, a lot quieter this time.

"He's here." Carol said.

And really that was all Jim needed to stay.

Leonard handed the book back to him, and Jim couldn't help but beam at him. "Like it?" He asked.

Leonard nodded. "'Course I did. It's a King novel. Can't fault a King novel."

Jim shrugged. He had no argument for that.

Leonard turned away, giving Jim a crooked smile that almost melted the poor librarian into a puddle, before he walked away.

"That man's going to kill me." Jim muttered, watching Leonard swagger off towards the Murder Mystery section.

Carol just chuckled as she too walked away, a stack of books in her arms that needed to be returned to their shelves. Jim opened the book, about to scan it back into the system, when a card fell out. In scrawly handwriting - a doctor's scrawly handwriting - Leonard had wrote:

"Jim, your books were really helpful, but I'm a man of simple tastes. Go out with me?"

Jim gaped. And then he gaped a little more. He blinked furiously, reading the card over and over, and then stashed it in his pocket. He took a small bookmark from the drawer in his desk, and scribbled a little note of his own, stashing that in his pocket too.

Leonard came back to the counter with another book in his hand. "Agatha Christie novel." Jim commented, eyebrows arching. "Nice choice. Murder on the Orient Express is one of my favourites, but I really like Appointment With Death."

"Have you read every book in this place?" Leonard asked, looking a little incredulous as Jim stamped the book and slipped his bookmark in there.

"Nah," Jim shook his head. "I take no pleasure from reading non-fiction."

Leonard chuckled, taking the book back from Jim with a nod. "I'll see you later then."

"Mm." Jim nodded. "Good bye."

Leonard looked a little disappointed. He paused, watching Jim, but Jim had to keep the facade up. He had no choice. He gave Leonard his usual bright smile, and then he looked away, turning to a few book returns he had yet to sort through.

Leonard left, and Jim watched him go, counting the seconds in his head.

~*~

Twenty three seconds. Twenty three seconds it took Leonard to leave, reach his car, read the bookmark, and jog back.

"I can't do Friday. I'm on call." He explained, holding Jim's bookmark up.

"Saturday then." Jim grinned, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Saturday." Leonard nodded.

They looked at each other, Leonard a little breathless from the run back and Jim grinning like an idiot. Jim's glasses were slipping again, and he was about to push them up, when Leonard did it for him.

"Don't ever get a better pair of glasses." He said, walking backwards, talking to Jim as he left. "That's a cute habit you've got there."

And that was all Jim needed for his day to be considerably brighter.

**Author's Note:**

> Nerdy!Jim is my favourite oh my.
> 
> So basically college is kicking my ass, and I'm working on a big Spones fic for a friend, as well as a follow up to the New Year's Eve fic, so keep your eyes peeled, and I apologise for the lack of works!


End file.
